S H 



THE ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE 
SPONGE FISHERIES ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



From BUI.I.ETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES, Volume XXVIII, 1908 



Proceedings of the Fourth International Fishery Congress 



Washington, ipo8 




%~~-^ WASHINGTON :::::: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE :::::: 1910 




Glass aas^^ 



THE ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE 
SPONGE FISHERIES ^ .* .^ ot ^ ^ 



From BUIvIvETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES, Volume XXVIII, 1908 



Proceedings of the Fourth Intcrnaiional Fishery Congress 



Waslmigton , lgo8 




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WASHINGTON : 



GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE :::::: 1910 



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BUREAU OF FISHERIES DOCUMENT NO. 668 
Issued March, 1910 



APR 16 1910 



THE ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES 



By Ch. Flegel 

Member of the Austrian Fishery Society, Vienna 

Paper presented before the Fourth International Fishery Congress 
held at Washington, U. S. A., September 22 to 28, 1908 



B. B. F. 1908—33 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Methods of sponge fishing 516 

Evils of the scaphander 518 

Attitude of the governments _ 522 

Greece 522 

Kalymnos 530 

Samos 530 

Crete 530 

Cyprus 532 

Tunis __ 532 

Turkey 532 

Egypt 533 

Spain, Algeria, and Morocco 534 

Italy -- 534 

Austria-Hungary 538 

United States 538 

Resume 540 

Appeal to the International Fishery Congress 542 

514 



THE ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 

By CH. FLEGEL, 
Member oj the Austrian Fishery Society, Vienna. 

[Translated from the German] 

I have the honor to report to the Fourth International Fishery Congress 
in Washington the unfortunate condition of the sponge divers of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. I do this with the well-founded hope that 
I shall meet here the active sympathy these sufferers so badly need. 

A condition of this sort, of course, never arises without a precedent abuse 
or evil, and this rule is borne out in the sponge fisheries. The evil in this case 
lay and lies in inordinate greed of gain, uncontrolled by law, unchecked by 
any national regard for the general weal. Filled with this greed, which stops 
at nothing, men found it good forty-two years ago to adopt for the fishing of 
sponges the diving apparatus invented for quite other purposes. Although death 
and illness have ensued, these people continue this abuse at the present time 
so far as they are permitted. It is true that they did not succeed in winning 
the whole world over to their method; they met rather with strong resistance 
from their own compatriots, and thus a hot struggle began which has not yet 
ended, though fortunately the evil has lost ground before the good. 

While in the island of Kalymnos in 1892, I accidentally learned of the 
sufferings of the sponge divers by asking a cripple the cause of his condition. 
The evils and abuses disclosed by his reply and confirmed by subsequent inves- 
tigations of the subject led me to dedicate myself to the cause without in the 
least realizing that it would absorb years of my life. 

The sponge fishermen everywhere lived in health and happiness so long 
as they gathered sponges by means of the three time-honored methods, hygienic 
and consistent with the public welfare; i. e., by means of diving naked, and by 
fishing with the hook and the dragnet. Since the scaphander was introduced 
in Greece and Turkey in 1866 numerous evils have befallen these formerly 
well-conditioned fishing people. There have been frequent cases of sudden 
and premature death, as well as of chronic diseases, worse than death, of youths 



5l6 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

and men; a correspondingly large number of widows and orphans without 
means of livelihood, with the worst of consequences to the high morality of 
former times; fading girls on account of lack of marrying men; lack of work 
for many on account of the scarcity of sponges due to the destructive fishing; 
pauperism and emigration on account of the general misery — in short, a social 
disintegration of the worst kind. The suffering people sought relief in vain 
for twenty-six years, unable to make their protest heard or to obtain assistance 
in their struggle. The various governments in whose power it lay to remedy 
the evil were slow to recognize it, and it has been only by unremitting effort 
that action has been secured. Most of the Mediterranean countries, and also 
the United States, have within the past decade taken measures of prohibition 
or relief, but there still remains in many localities much to be desired. 

METHODS OF SPONGE FISHING. 

Sponge fishing by the three good methods had been an industry for cen- 
turies, especially in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Sponges were 
found in great abundance before, both in shallow and deep waters, the fishermen, 
especially the naked divers, obtaining a good profit. The rowers were taken 
from neighboring localities, and youths and men, up to advanced age, were 
engaged for naked diving or the manipulation of the five-pronged hook and 
the dragnet. Whole fleets of small, excellent sailing vessels with naked divers 
departed to the East every spring after Easter, to the harbors of Syria, to the 
islands of Kalymnos, Syme, Chalke, and Kastelloriso ; and other sailing fleets, 
with the five-pronged hook and the dragnet, left Tschesme, Halikarnass, Hydra, 
Kranidion, Hermione, and Salamis, the village of Crappano in Dalmatia, the 
harbors of Italy, Tunis, Florida, Cuba, and the Bahama Islands. Healthy and 
jolly crews returned in September, from the coasts and the banks of the Medi- 
terranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, with a rich harvest of sponges to sell to 
the local merchants for exportation. 

The inhabitants of some of the islands and coasts of the ^Egean Sea have 
from early generations been excellent divers, and were skillful also with hook 
and dragnet. The divers of Delos were famous in antiquity; those of Kalymnos 
and Syme are so to-day." 

The naked divers descend to the considerable depth of 75 meters and remain 
under water from i ^ to 2 minutes, a few even 2X to 2 ^minutes. In a quest by 
the commander of a Russian gunboat in the harbor of Suda on August 10, 1907, 
one of several divers proved to be the best of them by remaining under water 
2 minutes and 5 seconds at a depth of 1 7 meters, moving about hurriedly. In 

tJ Herodotus mentions in Urania (chap. 8) the celebrated diver Skyllias of Skione. The sponge 
is mentioned by Homer in the Odessey (song 22, verse 455) and by .5Jschylus in Agamemnon (verse 
1.329). 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 517 

order to reach bottom the more rapidly, the diver grasps in both hands a flat 
block of white marble weighing from 14 to 16 kilograms, holds it in front of him, 
and jumps from the side of the vessel head downward into the spray, while a 
rope, passing through a hole in the stone and fastened also by means of a cord 
to the right wrist of the diver, follows him into the sea. Scarce touching the 
ground with his toes, the diver places the stone under his left arm, tears off the 
large sponges, and places these in a net fastened to his neck and waist. The 
crew of a sailing vessel with naked divers consists of 5 to 7 divers and 2 rowers. 
The only danger threatening the naked diver is the attack of a shark, but he 
does not consider this eventuality, as it is a very rare one. 

The second mode of gathering sponges is by means of a five-pronged hook 
of iron, weighing from 2 to 2^ kilograms and fixed to a handle 9 meters long. 
Each bark of the ^gean Sea carries 4 to 6 hooks, 3 of which are bound together 
and braced end to end by 2 smaller handles of 2 meters each, making a com- 
bined length of 27 meters. For still greater depths, up to 45 meters, the sponge 
fishermen of the ^gean Sea use a five-pronged hook i meter long and weighing 
1 2 to 1 5 kilograms, which is let down on a rope. The handles of the hooks of the 
Italian fishermen and the fishermen of Crappano in Dalmatia reach a length of 1 8 
meters, while those of the Itahans were, some sixteen years ago, only from 4 to 
5 meters, according to the "Condizioni della Marina Mercantile Italiana," 1892. 
The crews of hooking vessels number from 2 to 5 men, one manipulating the 
hooks, the others rowing and assisting. Two men per bark are found only 
among the crews of Crappano, the crews in Italy, Tunis, Greece, and Turkey 
numbering 3 to 5 men. The sponge fishermen of Crappano, in order to be able 
to see the bottom of the sea more easily, pour oil on the surface of the water to 
render it smoother. A more practical and cheaper method is that of the fisher- 
men of the ^gean Sea, who use for this purpose a special apparatus consisting of 
a tin cylinder with a glass bottom. The smoothing of the surface by a slight 
pressure of the glass bottom of the cylinder allows the eye to examine the bottom 
of the sea better than does the use of oil. 

The third method of gathering sponges is by means of the dragnet, which is 
fastened to a rectangular frame 4 to 7 meters long and 0.35 to 0.45 meter high, 
and is dragged by means of three ropes joined to a heavier rope. The part of 
the frame lying on the ground is of iron and weighs 20 to 30 kilograms ; the three 
other parts are of wood. The net has a depth of about 3 >^ meters and its meshes 
are 8 centimeters square. A sailing vessel equipped with a net is of 4 to 40 tons, 
and has a crew of 3 to 6 men, though the larger sailing vessels from Torre del 
Greco have more. The dragnet takes sponges at a depth of 1 20 meters, although 
not frequently. As it needs, for one thing, a flat sea bottom, and for another 
wind for the sails and room for maneuvering, it is evident that this work takes 



51 8 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

place far from the coast in deeper water — taking up, it is true, all that lies in its 
path, but this is what would otherwise be left to die off, as no other means can 
reach the depths at which the dragnet works. The clamor against this appa- 
ratus on the ground that it harms schooling fishes is an exaggeration, but some 
countries, as the United States of America and Cyprus, have forbidden the use 
of it. This is regrettable, for thousands of people live by this mode of sponge 
fishing, without hann to themselves or others. 

The fourth mode of sponge fishing is by means of the scaphander, or diver's 
suit, in which the sponge fisherman may descend to greater depths than the 
naked diver, and may secure great numbers of sponges not otherwise obtainable. 
The sailing vessel equipped with such an apparatus takes on board 4 to lo 
divers and 8 to 12 sailors, and is always accompanied on long expeditions by a 
second sailing vessel, to carry provisions and to receive the sponges. The equip- 
ment of such an expedition for a summer's cruise of seven to eight months along 
the coasts of Africa costs 30,000 francs, that of a sailing vessel with naked divers 
3,000 francs, that of a bark with the five-pronged hook 2,000, and of a sailing 
vessel with the dragnet i ,500, with the exception of the big vessels of Torre del 
Greco, the equipment of which is always more expensive. 

EVILS OF THE SCAPHANDER. 

The scaphander is in itself a splendid invention and very important and 
useful in submarine work at small depths, but its abuse in sponge fishing is 
equally harmful to the divers, the sponge grounds, and the economic welfare 
of the state. The diver in the apparatus may work without risk at a depth 
up to 16 meters, although accidents happen at smaller depths, as demonstrated 
by practice and as stated by Professor Katsaras." But at the greater depths 
of 16 to 75 meters, to which the unhappy diver is often forced to descend, the 
air, which is being driven down to him by two strong men by means of a pump, 
is correspondingly compressed in order to withstand the pressure of the water, 
which increases with every inch. This pressure hermetically fastens the rubber 
garment to the lower extremities of the diver, driving the blood continously 
toward the heart and head. The air breathed by the diver in the apparatus, 
saturated with carbon, penetrates into the blood through the lungs, renders 
it frothy and clogs the small vessels with bubbles, causing local obstruction 
and impediment of the circulation. 

The degree of harm depends upon the depth to which the diver descends 
and the time he passes under water, then on secondary conditions, as colds, a 
heavy meal before diving, and fatigue. The disease of the divers, which is of 

1 In his excellent work "Recherches cliniques et exp^rimentales sur les accidents survenant par 
I'emploi des scaphandres," Paris, 1890, p. 292-293. 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 519 

but one nature, is protean in its manifestations. It affects mostly the spinal 
marrow and the brain, the most important life centers, but appears in the most 
varied forms, as hemorrhages, stomach troubles, articular rheumatism, com- 
plete or partial lameness, lameness of separate limbs, fainting, vertigo, vomiting, 
dumbness, deafness, madness, brain stroke, heart stroke, hemorrhages of the 
brain, gangrene, loss of the finger nails, and frequently death, which is relief 
to these unfortunates. It should also be observed that the offspring of these 
divers have a weak constitution, especially of the nervous system. It is only 
if the diver is slightly attacked by the disease and immediately discontinues 
his work and subjects himself to treatment that it is possible for him to regain 
his health. Otherwise he is doomed to die prematurely, or he limps through 
life on crutches, or spends long years in bed covered with wounds. If the air- 
supply tube of the apparatus is punctured the unfortunate diver is immediately 
squeezed to death by the pressure of the terrible mass of water, which had 
received until that moment the necessary counter pressure from the air labo- 
riously pumped down. His head grows black and swells so that it can not be 
pulled out of the metal helmet. It must, consequently, be detached from the 
body and cut to pieces before being removed. The body is lowered to the 
bottom of the sea in a sack weighted with stones, or it is buried on the coast. 
Soon after another diver assumes the helmet which but shortly was covered with 
the blood of his comrade, and goes to meet the same danger, like a gladiator 
of ancient Rome. 

Since the dreadful consequences of the abuse of the diving apparatus are 
so evident, it is astounding that this business has spread and lasted so long, 
and in spite of the protests of the population and of individual philanthropists. 
Five conditions, however, explain partly the extraordinary duration of so 
great an evil: (i) The abuse is practiced on the high seas and concerns poor 
fishermen of distant, isolated localities, from which, moreover, they are absent 
the greater part of the year. (2) The evil is not confined to one country, 
but appears in all the sponge-bearing countries of the Mediterranean Sea and 
some of the Gulf of Mexico ; the sponge fishermen do not live in compact settle- 
ments but dispersed on islands, peninsulas, and coastal strips of these two 
great basins. Thus the question is an international one. (3) The owners 
and partisans of diving apparatus endeavor to influence the governments, 
the press, and public opinion by such means as concealing the terrible conse- 
quences of this abuse or by excusing them. (4) There is a lack of official 
or private statistics on the mortality and diseases of divers using the diving 
apparatus and on the harm done by the apparatus to the sponges in respect 
to their reproduction. (5) There is a lack of responsibility on the part of 
harbor masters or captains for the death or illness of a diver; nor is there in 



520 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

the countries where these divers Hve, i. e., in Greece and Turkey, any insurance 
on their lives, or in case of illness due to the diving apparatus. 

The diver is circumscribed by an evil circle from which he can be released 
only by a beneficent law prohibiting this mode of sponge fishing. Greed, 
bravado, and necessity sent the first divers into the scaphander at the instiga- 
tion of the harbor masters and captains. Now, with premature or sudden 
death or chronic disease before him, the "machinist" {iJ.T]xaviK(k , the sponge 
diver working in the machine, ^i^x"^!, is named by the Greek people) sells 
his health and hfe as dearly as possible. He is paid for a summer season of 
seven to eight months 2,000 to 3,500 francs. This, however, he soon spends, as 
he is tortured by a craving for enjoyment, as a man condemned to death or 
with thoughts of suicide. The high wages of the divers, moreover, are often 
accompanied by rough treatment. They desert, and the harbor masters and 
captains punish them for it as long as they can by the exaction of high per- 
centage, of extraordinary returns in sponges, of inordinately high prices for the 
provisions delivered to their families, or by pitilessly requiring them to dive to 
too great depths, where they meet death or disease as a result. 

The sponge-fishing population of the ^gean Sea, Greeks and Albanians, 
was a rehgious one without being fanatic or superstitious. They maintained 
faithfully the ancient simple rites and customs, and their mode of hfe was hon- 
orable and patriarchic. But what a change has come in all this since the abuse 
of the diving apparatus shook to the depths the moral and material life of these 
brave fishermen! Both those who use and those who do not use the diving 
apparatus have fallen into misery, but the worse fate and the responsibility for 
the evil has befallen the users. A victim of premature death, or of chronic dis- 
eases worse than death, the unfortunate diver seeks in his affliction to forget his 
terrible fate in amusement and profligacy to-day, for to-morrow leaving his aged 
parents or his young wife and small children in misery; or still worse, he is left 
to share this misery with them as a cripple ; or, by the height of misfortime, he 
limps through his native place or a foreign land as a beggar, if he is not so crip- 
pled as to have to be carried in a cart. The harbor masters and captains, as 
already stated, bear no responsibility for the frequent accidents, and with no 
provisions of insurance for cases of disease and death, the entire burden of the 
misfortune falls upon the family and the nearest relatives of the victim. The 
sponge trade likewise has for years suffered from the high prices of the sponges, 
a natural consequence of the destruction and scarcity caused by the diving 
apparatus and by the expensive hire of the divers. 

Specialists have for some time been studying and publishing the results of 
their observations on the frequent and varied diseases and the numerous cases 
of death from working in compressed air, and more recently especially among 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 52 1 

the Sponge fishermen working in diving apparatus. Paul Bert, Guerard, Febvre, 
Feltz, Bouchard, Petit, Couty, Chabaud, Vivenot, Schultze, Saeger, Leyden, 
Pierre Marie, Rameaux, Bucquoy, Hermann von Schrotter, Kononofi', and 
others have written on the general subject, and Paul Bert, Leroy do Mericourt, 
Gal, Lampadarios, Kotsonopoulos, Parissis, Tetsis, Charpentier, Katsaras, 
Sawas, Livadas, and the Greek naval officer Melas have treated it with 
especial reference to the divers. It will be to the purpose to cite some of these 
writings. 

Michael Katsaras, professor of nervous diseases at the University of Athens, 
published in 1890 the already mentioned work on diseases of divers," which were 
not sufficiently considered by the governments of the interested countries. 

Katsaras observed and described 62 cases of diseases of divers, and made 
experiments with the diving apparatus on dogs. I refer to his book all those 
who desire better acquaintance with the subject. The celebrated scientist lives 
in Syme, one of the principal seats of abuse of the diving apparatus, and is, con- 
sequently, well acquainted with this evil. 

Katsaras limits himself to purely scientific demonstrations without uttering 
any cry of horror. After having described all the forms of the diseases, he indicates 
the means of curing the slighter ones. These treatments, however, demand so 
much time that only persons in prosperous circumstances can take them, and 
not divers weighted down by debts. Katsaras gives the following advice as 
to what the diver must do to avoid disease: 

(i) Regulate the duration of the sojourn under water according to the depth, 
as one hour at depths of 10 to 15 fathoms, one-quarter of an hour for depths of 15 to 20 
fathoms, ten minutes in depths of 20 to 25 fathoms, five minutes in depths of 25 to 28 
fathoms, 3 minutes in depths of 28 to 30 fathoms, and one minute in depths of 30 to 
32 fathoms. 

(2) Rise very slowly, stopping for one minute after each 2 fathoms. 

(3) Avoid consecutive diving by the same person. 

(4) Do not dive too deep. 

(5) Do not dive while afflicted with a cold. 

(6) Have the intestines empty before diving, and eat only in the evening after the 
completion of the work. 

(7) Avoid fatigue. 

What would become of pecuniary profit, which is the most impoitant 

consideration in each trade, if the seven prescriptions of Katsaras were followed? 

Of these the most important is the fourth, and this according to his own words 

it is not possible to follow. Katsaras himself says: 

Of these the fourth precaution can not be considered; to forbid the divers to descend 
too deep would be to forbid them their trade-, for a sufficient quantity of sponges can 
not be found at small depths. 

" " Recherches cliniques et exp^rimentales sur les accidents survenant par I'emploi des scaphandres, " 
Paris, 1890. 



522 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

This is the only passage, but a very important one, in Katsaras's work, 
which indicates that the diving apparatus is Hkewise very harmful to the repro- 
duction of sponges. 

Katsaras gives other specific advice: 

I advise the affected divers to dive daily for two or three months to a depth of 8, 
ID, and 12 fathoms, staying under water from fifteen to thirty minutes; and to vary the 
treatment by compressed air for one month by first cautiously eliminating the pressure, 
and then resuming it again, etc. * * * The authorities of these sponge-fishing 
islands should therefore establish small hospitals on the seacoast in order to introduce 
the systematic treatment with compressed air by means of the diving apparatus. Each 
small hospital ought to possess 2 or 3 apparatuses for this purpose, and other treatment 
should be included. 

Can anything be more obnoxious and futile than this system? Rendering 
men ill in order to cure them, and recommending to them a trade with such 
precautions that it must cost more than it would yield? Katsaras has likewise 
failed to give statistics of deaths ; he contents himself with far too mild a state- 
ment when he says on page 2 " No year goes by without at least 10 dead." 

Katsaras wrote as a clever physician, leaving others to apply his results. 
These others are in the first place the authorities of the localities and countries 
in which the sponge divers live, and in the second place the authorities of the 
countries in which the abuse is practiced, and unfortunately they pay no atten- 
tion to the work of the great scientist. It has therefore brought scarcely any 
aid to the unfortunates to whose weal it is dedicated. Only by enforcing the 
important logical deduction from the excellent work of Katsaras can the solution 
of this question and the salvation of these unfortunates be brought about. The 
diving apparatus in sponge fishing must be prohibited, a thing which has now 
taken place in some countries, thanks to the pains we have taken. 

ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENTS. 

As already stated, my work in behalf of the sponge divers began with my 
visit to Kalymnos in 1892. My plan was to appeal to the governments of each 
of the sponge -producing countries of the Mediterranean Sea, beginning with 
the smaller and nearer ones and going to the larger and more distant, and 
including countries without sponge fisheries, but with sponge beds, as well as 
those with sponge fisheries with and without machine diving. According to 
this programme, after Kalymnos came Samos, Crete, Cyprus, Egypt, Tunis, 
Italy, Austria-Hungary, Greece, and Turkey, all of which except Tunis I visited 
in person. It will be best to discuss first the conditions in Greece. 



The sponge fishermen of Greece live at Kranidion, of 8,000 inhabitants, 
and Hermione, of 2,000 inhabitants, on the Argolic Peninsula, at Hydra with 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 523 

7,000, Spetzae with 6,000, ^gina with 8,000, and Salamis with 3,000 inhabitants; 
with the exception of the ^ginetes, they are all Albanese. There are no naked 
divers in Greece; the sponge fishermen of Kranidion, Hermione, and Salamis 
use the hook and the dragnet; those of Hydra use the diving apparatus, which 
was introduced in Greece in 1866 by several men from Nauplia for the sponge 
fishermen of the neighboring localities of Kranidion and Hermione. After these 
machines had brought death to several men and had crippled others, also had 
cost a great deal of money, they were voluntarily relinquished in the two latter 
places. A new attempt to introduce them in Greece was made in 1882, however, 
after they had been operating without interruption in Turkey. This occurred 
at Syme and was more successful financially, since it was in direct communi- 
cation with the world market of Londoc and especially because much less 
heed was taken to spare the human victims which must be sacrificed if financial 
success is to be obtained in this deadly trade. 

The evil made thus great progress notwithstanding the protests of the 
people from time to time, the terrible abuse growing at last into a recognized 
industry. The fearful consequences were excused by citing that in other indus- 
tries, as in mining, accidents happened likewise. It was not taken into account 
that in the mines it is the natural conditions that bring about accidents, while 
in sponge fishing with the diving apparatus men make deliberate choice of this 
over the three safe modes of fishing, because by this means they can gain money 
more rapidly, the sacrificing of human lives, the misery of their neighbors, 
as well as the future of the sponge fishery being unheeded, and nobody held 
responsible for the evil. 

The Greek Government, however, does not ignore the cause of the sponge 
divers. On the contrary, as appears from various official reports, the evils 
of the business are well recognized. 

The ministry of war published on April 12-24, 1896, a circular on the pre- 
cautions to be taken by machine divers, and sends out every summer the dis- 
patch boat Krela, sometimes also a second war ship, to the coasts of Africa 
from Derna to Sfax for the purpose of supervising the sponge fisheries, of 
supplying the fishermen with drinking water, and of lending the necessary 
assistance in cases of illness. This ministry also founded in April, 1904, at 
the recommendation of Her Majesty Queen Olga of Greece, a hospital for 
seriously diseased divers at Tripoli, the lighter affections to be treated on board 
the Kreta; and it published in March, 1904, the very noteworthy report of 
Constantine Sawas, member of the board of health, professor of hygiene at 
the University of Athens, and physician to His Majesty King George of Greece, 
on the diseases of the divers and remedy for the evils existing. 

According to the data furnished by the Greek Naval Office and by private 
individuals (Sawas, p. 10), Hydra sent out, dviring the summer season of 1903, 



524 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

171 vessels with 1,370 sponge fishermen, of which craft 36 were saiHng vessels 
equipped with diving apparatus, 342 divers, and 667 sailors; 15 were sailing 
vessels with the dragnet and 80 fishermen, and 70 were barks equipped with 
hooks and 281 fishermen. Mgina sent out 40 sailing vessels with the diving 
apparatus, of which 24 were accompanied by another sailing vessel, with 214 
divers and 508 sailors. According to the harbor master of Spetzse this island 
put out in that year 8 sailing vessels with the diving apparatus, 43 divers, and 
80 sailors. Kranidion sent out 52 barks carrying hooks, with 162 fishermen, 
and 21 sailing vessels with the dragnet and 93 fishermen, moreover 2 vessels 
with 24 sailors carrying supplies to the fishermen on the coast of Africa. The 
number of 12 sailors on each of these vessels is extraordinarily large, and Her- 
mione is not mentioned by Savvas. The total of the above figures is 318 vessels 
with 2,494 men, of which 134 carried 599 divers and 1,173 sailors, 122 carried 
hooks and 443 fishermen, 36 carried the dragnet and 173 fishermen, 24 were 
escort of the diving vessels and had 82 sailors, and 2 were packet boats with 24 
sailors. According to the commander of the Kreta, Stamatios Vuduris, the 
fishermen flying the Greek flag gathered in 1902 120,000 to 130,000 oka, or 
153,600 to 166,400 kilograms, of sponges, valued at 5 to 5K million drachmas. 
From the data furnished by the Greek naval physician, George Sphinis, 
who served on the Kreta from 1900 to 1903, Savvas gives the following statistics: 

Under the eyes of the officers of the Kreta in 1900, 12 divers died, 228 fell slightly 
ill, 34 fell seriously ill. In 1901, 396 fell ill, 34 were treated on the Kreta, and 5 of these 
died. In 1902, 3 died on the Kreta, 232 fell slightly ill, and 23 gravely ill. In 1903, 
56 sick were treated on the Kreta, of which 9 were completely cured, 17 improved to 
such an e.xtent that they could do some work, while 27 improved, but needed after 
treatment. Three died. 

Savvas observes: 

The number of divers treated on the Kreta seems small in comparison with the 
cases of illness in previous years. This is due to the fact that the captains of the sponge 
vessels are distrustful toward the war-ship on account of its rigorous supervision and 
would not report their sick, going only so far as to ask for remedies. 

But do not the men asking for remedies avow that there is at least one 
sick on board, and has not the commander of a war-ship the power to seek out 
the sick on board the small vessel should he earnestly desire it? 

Savvas savs further that Paul Bert had found that about 30 Greek sponge 
divers died every year. Katsaras reduces this already inadequate figure to "at 
least 10," while Sphinis states that the number seen by him and the officers of 
the Kreta were 12 in 1900, 4 in 1901, 3 in 1902, and 2 in 1904. Savvas, however, 
observes, quoting ofhcial witnesses for corroboration, that " the number of deaths 
among the sponge divers is much larger." And the commander of the Kreta, 
Stamatios Vuduris, says that 60 divers had died at Bengazi and Derna in 1901. 
In the Great Desert there was found a sack containing the bodies of two divers. 



ABUSE OP THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 525 

The commander of the Kreta in 1903, Petros Zotos, obtained under oath names 
of 24 divers deceased in that year. This commander learned, moreover, from a 
rehable source, that 40 other divers, whose names he could not get, had died. 
He is of the opinion that of the 900 divers who work under the Greek flag in 1 40 
scaphanders more than loo died within the period of one summer cruise (from 
March to October), that the others all but a few "are either crippled already or 
will soon be so and absolutely incapable of any other work." My experience of 
many years confirms the opinion of Captain Zotos. 

Savvas republishes in his report the already mentioned circular of the 
Greek Naval Office of April 12-24, 1896, on the precautions to he taken by the 
divers. This had never been enforced, a fact which has made the Greek Gov- 
ernment since 1900 detail a war-ship each summer for the protection and assist- 
ance of the sponge fishermen. Savvas finds even this measure insufficient, 
however, without a special law, observing that — 

The measures of the rapidly succeeding governments have unfortunately but a very 
small effect upon the sponge fishing conducted with diving machines. It is absolutely 
necessary to take more effective and thorough measures, and such ouglit to be inaugu- 
rated by a special law for the purpose of limiting the evil. 

The measures recommended by Savvas are divided into three classes, (I) 
financial, (II) administrative, and (III) sanitary. 

I. The captains of sponge-fishing vessels borrow, at very high interest, a 
considerable sum which is to be paid back to the lender at the end of six months. 
In order to obtain sujfficient sponges to be able to pay back the borrowed sum 
with the interest and, moreover, to support themselves and their families, they 
employ a comparatively small number of divers, who must work very hard and 
risk every danger. The captains exhibit a change of attitude as the fishing 
season advances. Until their indebtedness has been covered by the number of 
sponges obtained, they spare the divers, but after this the latter are driven to 
extremest effort for the captain's personal gain before the end of the season 
shall have come. Savvas proposes, accordingly, to decrease as much as possible 
the borrowed sum and the interest, which amounts each year to from 24 to 36 
per cent. The prices of provisions for the crew and for the vessel's supplies are 
exorbitant, but the captain is obliged to accept; otherwise he does not obtain 
the necessary loan. Savvas would, therefore, as a first financial measure, de- 
crease the interest to 10 per cent and 12 per cent, and allow the captains to pur- 
chase the provisions and other necessaries where most advantageous to them. 
Savvas does not discuss the question of source of the capital for the enterprise, 
whether to be supplied by banks or otherwise; but he deplores the advancing of 
money by the captains to the divers, since the latter spend it in orgies which are 
harmful, not only because the money is uselessly spent, but also because the 
physique of the divers, weakened by dissipation, is much more readily the prey 



526 BUI.LETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

of disease. By this advance, moreover, the diver is placed in complete subju- 
gation to the captain, who makes him work even when he is ill. As a second 
financial measure, Savvas would change the advance pay into a monthly salary. 
As a third, he proposes the founding of a relief fund for the divers, to which all 
captains and divers ought to contribute. From this fund assistance would be 
given to the widows and orphans and to the sick and disabled divers. The 
school for divers and the hospitals for the latter would likewise be maintained 
from the proceeds of this fund. 

II. The first administrative measure proposed by Sawas is the founding of 
a diving school at Toros, Hydra, or at the navy-yard of Salamis. A diploma 
from this school would be demanded for permission to follow the calling of diver 
or to be a captain of a sponge-fishing vessel. Only when all the men are trained 
will it be possible, according to Savvas, to place upon the captain the responsi- 
bility for violating precautionary measures and not now when he acts in igno- 
rance. The school would be under the direction of a naval officer, after the 
latter, if possible, has visited the diving school of the Russian fleet in Cronstadt, 
which is considered a model. A naval physician would likewise be detailed to 
this school, after having undergone a course of special studies on this subject in 
order to learn the elementary anatomical and sanitary knowledge in this domain. 
He would be present at the practical exercises of the students, to give immediate 
assistance in case of accident and to subject divers suflfering from a chronic 
disease to a regular treatment, and if possible a hospital would be erected in the 
vicinity of the school. A course of one month should be sufficient training for 
the divers. 

Sawas's second administrative measure is to subject the sponge-fishing 
vessels to a thorough examination before their departure, not only to ascertain 
the condition of the divers, but also to inspect the diving apparatus, the air 
pump, the rubber tube, the clothes of the diver, the manometer. Men suffering 
from lung and heart diseases should not be allowed to work as divers, nor should 
neurasthenic, weak, or anaemic persons, those suffering from chronic diseases of 
the ear and nose, those who are very lame, nor men under 20 and over 40 years 
of age. This inspection ought to be held by a commission consisting of a naval 
officer as president of the board, a naval physician, and a naval engineer, who 
should go in person to the point from which the fleet of sponge-fishing vessels 
is to take its departure. The board of inspectors should be authorized by a 
special law to issue permit and ship's papers to each vessel fulfilling the above- 
mentioned conditions, which permit and papers are at present issued by the 
authorities of the port; also to prohibit, by force if necessary, the departure of 
a vessel not fulfilling the conditions, or of a diver who does not possess the 
qualifications demanded. 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 527 

The third administrative measure proposed by Savvas is to insure the 
correctness of the ship's papers, which heretofore have been supervised very 
carelessly by the port authorities. The captain should be compelled to keep 
his records with the greatest exactitude and to report each change in his crew 
to the nearest port authorities or to the commander of the cruising war ship. 
Upon returning to his native port, he must render account of the health of 
each of his crew individually, as well as of deserters and deceased. The harbor 
master must then make to the Naval Office a detailed report on the cruise. 

Savvas recommends as a fourth administrative measure the supervision 
of sponge fishing along the coast of Africa by one or two men-of-war, which 
has been done since 1900. Savvas urges, further, that the naval commanders 
be empowered to take more active measures, to impose small fines for the viola- 
tion of regulations, and even to deprive the captains of their permits. 

As a fifth administrative measure Sawas recommends an exact regulation 
of the duties of the captain and the master of the divers in regard to the latter, 
as well as of the mode and duration of the work and an express definition of 
the responsibility of the captain and the master for each violation of regulative 
measures, thus to prevent all excuses based on ignorance. 

The sixth administrative measure is the imposition of heavy punishment 
on the captain and the master for the violation of any regulation, and Savvas 
cites articles 300, 301, and 310 of the Greek penal code and articles 222 and 230 
of the German, in force in the diving service of the German fleet. He does not 
deem the articles of the Greek penal code sufficient, however, and expresses 
the opinion that they ought to be made more rigorous by new legislation apply- 
ing especially to the diving business, for only then could a limit be put to the 
requirements of the captains. The harbor masters and the commanders of 
the supervising war vessels should have authority to impose punishments upon 
the guilty, for too much time would be necessary for action in such cases by 
the court or by the Naval Office, and the effect of the punishment would be 
weakened. 

III. The following are the sanitary measures recommended by Sawas: 

(i) Perfect health of the diver when entering upon his work. 

(2) Slow descent to the depths of the sea. 

(3) Regulation of the duration of the sojourn of the diver under water by 
the depth, according to Katsaras. 

(4) Slow ascent from the depth, according to Katsaras, Silberstein, Meri- 
court, and Kononoff. 

(5) Prohibition of continued diving by the same person, quoting the 
opinion of the inventor of the most popular diving apparatus, Denayrouze, 
that the duration of work for a diver in this apparatus should never exceed 



528 BUI<LETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

2)4. hours daily and, according to others, that the diver should dive but once 
a day. 

(6) Avoidance of diving during a cold or with a full stomach. 

(7) Avoidance of fatigue, of use of liquor, of fasting. 

(8) Presence of remedies and means for first aid on each vessel, as (a) 
compressed-air treatment when the diver falls ill, a thing which Savvas himself 
admits is impossible, since there is room for only one diving apparatus on each 
vessel, and the latter serves for the work and not for curative purposes; (6) 
breathing of compressed air; (c) establishment of hospitals on the African 
coast and in Greece; such a hospital was founded in Tripoli in April, 1904. 

Savvas says in chapter 8, under the heading "The result," that about 2,600 
men are engaged in sponge fishing in Greece alone, that among these there are 
636 machine divers on 134 vessels with 1,218 sailors, that according to the 
reports of the commanders of the Kreta at least 60 to 100 divers die each year, 
and that so many fall ill that four-fifths of them are more or less severely crip- 
pled, a fact that renders their work much more arduous or often completely 
incapacitates them. The remaining sponge fishermen, of whom those using 
the dragnet form the minority in Greece, while the naked divers form the 
majority in Turkey and are the only ones in the other countries — these, Savvas 
observes, suffer no harm. Why, then, does not Savvas state the conclusion 
to which every impartial person must come, that the harmless modes of sponge 
fishing should be encouraged and the harmful prohibited? He does imply 
this conclusion in the following statement : 

If the execution of these measures is for one reason or another impossible (and it is 
impossible, for the profits, which are the principal incentive of every trade, would be 
lost), then should the prohibition of machine diving be considered, not only for the 
salvation of a large number of persons from death and disease, but also for the honor 
and good name of the country. 

Regard for the life and health of the divers and for the good name not 
only of Greece but of all countries interested in the sponge fisheries, I share 
fully with Savvas; but I am amazed at the time required by most theoreticians, 
of whom Savvas is one, for recognition of the fact that no advance can be made 
by the execution of even a part of his measures — that their enforcement imposes 
the prohibition of machine diving. It is the same end at last, after all is said 
and done, i. e., the actual prohibition of the scaphander. 

While Professor Savvas was writing his report, the Naval Office detailed 
in January, 1904, a board, consisting of 12 members, to which belonged Savvas 
and deputies from Parliament from the sponge-fishing districts as well as naval 
officers, for the purpose of working out a project of law to govern sponge fishing 
with diving machines. The board finished its work within a month. The 
drafted law contains all that Savvas demands in his report, but has not been 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 529 

once brought up in the Chamber of Deputies during the four years that have 
elapsed since then. It may be gathered hence that the partisans of the diving 
machine, wishing not to be molested, know how to hinder the presentation of 
the question before the Chamber, and without the vote of the Chamber the 
execution of the measures is of course impossible. Thus, then, the well-meant 
regulations are absolutely unimportant because they are impossible of execution! 
and they are worthless and impossible of execution also because they cost more 
than the industry yields — and this is the worst to be said about an industry. 
This wretched business is profitable now because all responsibihty, all burdens, 
all the suffering of it, can be shifted and because the two countries where it 
exists, Greece and Turkey, have indorsed it for forty-two years. 

In January, 1907, the Greek Naval Ofhce in Athens published the "Guide 
for Divers" by the naval physician. Dr. Spiridon Livadas, and the naval lieu- 
tenant, Constantine Melas. By the wish of Her Majesty the Queen of Greece, 
Livadas and Melas were detailed for a few weeks to the diving school of the 
Russian fleet at Cronstadt, in order to familiarize themselves with the inno- 
vations and improvements brought about in this work. Their "Guide" does 
not give any statistics of death in the sponge fisheries, but it reiterates the 
advice already given by Katsaras and Sawas; and it has a highly suggestive 
title-page depicting a naked sponge fisherman lying on a bed in the hospital of 
Tripoli, his body covered with wounds, himself one of the numerous victims 
of the diving apparatus who died from gangrene after an illness of six 
weeks. This title-page, the short description of the sufferings of this victim, 
and the great number of precautions to be observed by the diver in order to 
avoid the grave danger threatening his life and health, are likely to frighten 
him, and thus this book renders a great service to the sponge fisheries. Not 
otherwise, however, can it prove of great benefit to Greek divers, for there is 
an enormous difference between the work of the divers in the navy, which is 
of great usefulness and harms nobody, and that of the sponge divers, who have 
to consider pecuniary remuneration and engage in work which causes the 
greatest harm to men and sponge resources. 

Thus, as shown by the official reports quoted; by the fact that the Greek 
Government maintains the hospital ship Kreta in the interests of the sponge 
divers; by the fact that a hospital has been established at Tripoli at the insti- 
gation of Her Majesty the Queen; by the issuance of circulars and regulations 
from the Greek Ministry of War — by all these various actions the evils of machine 
diving are acknowledged in Greece. I have obtained the favorable consideration 
of the King and the cordial sympathy and aid of the Queen in the cause of 
these suffering subjects. The people themselves have given evidence of their 
need and of their appreciation of efforts for their rehef. But the logical and 



530 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

hoped-for result, the suppression of the evil by entire prohibition of the diving 
apparatus, is not yet accomplished. 

KALYMNOS. 

In Kalymnos results were at last obtained by the promulgation, in 1902, of 
an irade from the Sultan, which in the extent of its prohibitions exceeded the 
expectations of both factions interested. In execution the irade has, however, 
been defective. Provision was not made for the confiscation of diving machines 
nor for their exclusion from Turkish import and export. And in spite of the 
prohibition, a considerable number of Greek and Turkish sponge divers worked 
until lately in Turkish and Cretan waters without being prosecuted. They 
contended that they worked in neutral waters, since they fished at a distance 
of 3 maritime miles from the coast, where, according to them, everything was 
free to everybody. This interpretation of the neutrality of waters is absolutely 
arbitrary and sophistical, since it is the sponges that are here in question and 
not the waters, and since the sponges, with the banks on which they grow, 
even if 20, 30, and even more maritime miles from the coast, belong to particular 
states, generally to the one whose coast is the nearest. But even if the owner 
does not wish to protect his sponge banks or if he can not do it, as happened 
with Crete, on account of the lack of a revenue cutter, the wrongdoers need by 
no means be allowed to carry on illegal operations, even in neutral waters. 
Civilized nations are soUdary in this respect and do not overlook such crimi- 
nality, as was shown in 1905, by the four protecting powers of Crete, Great 
Britain, France, Italy, and Russia, and lately again by France in Cretan waters. 
The sponge fishermen following the three older methods of fishing are naturally 
displeased at the disregard of the prohibition, and there have been some dis- 
orders on this account in Kalymnos and Syme. 



The Duchy of Samos possesses good sponge grounds, but no native sponge 
fishermen, and by reason of its small size would be of slight importance in the 
sponge fisheries had it not been the first autonomic country to prohibit diving 
machines. This prohibition took place in 1898, and in 1902 was revoked, but 
in 1904 the law was again changed, prohibiting the diving machine and reper- 
mitting the dragnet, which in the meantime had been prohibited for an interval. 

CRETE. 

There are no sponge fishermen in Crete, with the exception of a few who 
allow themselves to be tempted to work on foreign sailing vessels in diving 
apparatus. But there are excellent sponges there, especially on the coast of 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 53 1 

the eastern prefecture (Lasithi) and the islands belonging to it. Since 1898, 
the revenues obtained from licenses for sponge fishing fluctuated between 7,833 
francs 40 centimes in 1903, and 26,360 francs in 1902. The naked divers and 
those using the dragnet paid in 1907, up to November of that year, 230 francs 
for each sailing vessel and since that date 250 francs, while the hook fishermen 
paid 90 francs, now 100 francs, for each bark. The working season in sponge 
fishing is considered on Crete from March i until February 28. The Cretan 
statistical data do not give, unfortunately, any information as to how many, 
whence, or on how many vessels sponge fishermen arrive, how many of them 
use the three proper modes of fishing, nor the quantity and value of the catch 
of each. 

The first action against machine diving on the sponge banks of Crete was 
obtained in 1899, and consisted of a law of complete prohibition. The sponge 
beds flourished in consequence, and soon became a great temptation to the 
greedy machine divers of Greece and Turkey, who sought repeatedly, from 
1 90 1 to 1907, to have the law repealed. Failing in this they circumvented it 
by fishing secretly on the coasts of Crete on their return from the African banks, 
and in 1905 enlisted even a few Cretans in this illegal enterprise. I at once 
took steps in the matter, and had the satisfaction of seeing the four protecting 
powers — Great Britain, France, Italy, and Russia — send their war ships to seize 
the culprits. Unfortunately, however, proper punishment was not inflicted, 
and the situation became an open scandal. In government circles it was 
claimed that enforcement of the law was impossible because Crete owned no 
revenue cutter. But there were guilty Cretans who could have been appre- 
hended without any revenue cutter, and the license fees from the sponge fish- 
eries would have built a revenue cutter long since. The contention between 
the friends and opponents of the diving machines kept the question embarrass- 
ingly alive to the Government and Parliament of Crete, and finally brought 
about action in the fall of 1907, whereby a limited number (10) of diving machines 
were permitted for ten years to a syndicate under certain specified conditions. 
These conditions, however, were purposely made so difficult that no such syn- 
dicate could be found, nor ever can. Another provision of the law was for the 
payment of damages to the families of divers who died as a consequence of the 
use of the scaphander. Thus the law has been saved ; but the lack of a revenue 
cutter in Crete is a disadvantage that calls for prompt remedy. 

The cause of the sponge divers in Crete received a further signal support 
in 1908, when the French Government, at the request of the Cretan Govern- 
ment, ordered its war ship Faucon, stationed at Suda, to apprehend the sponge 
divers fishing illegally in the waters of Hierapetra, which are under French 
control. The Faucon captured 7 boats, with 80 men, from Kalymnos and 
Syme. The remainder escaped in a heavy gale, and three were wrecked, with 



532 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

a loss of 25 men. The decisive action on this occasion of the Cretan Govern- 
ment has greatly encouraged the opponents of the diving machine, and has 
led to similar requests in regard to the sponge grounds of Turkey, Italy, Tunis, 
Cyprus, and the Gulf of Mexico. In any event, the governments of Greece 
and Turkey have before them the important duty, whether or not they forbid 
the diving machine in their own territory, to prevent their own subjects from 
violation of the laws of other countries. And such violation when it does occur 
should be punished by confiscation of the ship's papers for a year or more, and 
forever in case of repeated offense. 

It will be noted from the foregoing that the position of Crete in regard to 
the sponge fisheries and her attitude in the present question is most important 
and worthy of admiration. 

CYPRUS. 

Cyprus likewise has rich sponge banks but no native fishermen. The 
harmless dragnet was Jong ago prohibited, but the diving machine was permitted 
until 1 90 1, when, the authorities having been enlisted against this abuse, a law 
was obtained which remained in force for three years. In 1904 the partisans 
of the apparatus succeeded in obtaining authority for a limited number of 
diving machines, imder pretext of work to be done in the harbor of Famagusta. 
The naked divers and hookers were driven away by the conditions operating 
to tJieir hardship; and a plan for a colony of sponge fishermen, as in Egypt, 
likewise came to nothing, naturally, since it of necessity involved the discon- 
tinuance of machine diving. At the present time the Government of Cyprus 
leases to the highest bidder the privilege of using six diving machines in one and 
the other half of the waters alternately, a misstep which is the more astonishing 
in the face of the wholesome example of near-by Egypt. 



The Regency of Tunis has extensive sponge banks, and numerous sponge 
fishermen, about 1,500, on 400 barks equipped with hooks. A great number 
besides come yearly from Italy, Greece, and Turkey. I lack statistics for 
Tunis, however. At my solicitation the scaphander was prohibited in 1901, but 
unfortunately, notwithstanding the apparatus is termed "engin destructeur" in 
the language of the decree, enforcement of the prohibition has failed, through 
intrigues of the opposing forces. 

TURKEY. 

Turkey has the most and the best sponge fishermen, but unfortunately 
official statistics of the sponge fisheries are entirely lacking. The chief localities 
are Kalymnos with 18,000 inhabitants, Syme with 20,000, Chalke with 6,000, 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 533 

Kastelloriso with 6,000, Halikarnass with 3,000, Tschesme with 3,500, AivaU 
with 20,000, Moschonisia with 3,000, and Marmara with 2,000, also villages and 
cities of Syria. Before the introduction of the diving apparatus there were 
some sponge fishermen also in the islands of Patmos, Leros, and Telos. In 
Kalymnos, Syme, Chalke, and Kastelloriso all four kinds of fishing methods are 
represented, in Halikarnass and Tschesme, only the dragnet; in Aivali, Mos- 
chonisia, and Marmora, only the diving apparatus, though in limited numbers; 
in Syria there are only naked divers. The first six places and the villages of 
Syria have always depended entirely upon sponge fishing for a livelihood. Since 
the introduction of the diving machine there has been a marked emigration, 
especially to Russia and the United States of America. The famous naked 
divers, who have inherited this skill from many generations of forefathers and 
have perfected it by practice, live at Kalymnos, Syme, Chalke, Kastelloriso, and 
on the coast of Syria. 

A law prohibiting the scaphander was promulgated in 1902, but is not 
effectively enforced. 

EGYPT. 

I went to Egypt in 1901 , after successful visits to Samos, Crete, Cyprus, and 
Timis. I encoimtered considerable opposition, but a beneficent law was at 
length promulgated in the spring of 1902, to be followed in the autunm by a 
similar decree for the whole Ottoman Empire. The Egyptian Government has 
always shown great interest and care for its sponge fishermen, having founded 
a colony for them near the excellent harbor of Marsa Matruh, 160 kilometers 
west of Alexandria, and having also rigorously enforced the law by means of the 
coast guard. 

In 1906 a rich new bank, extending no miles from Abukir and having a 
width of I to 3 miles in a depth of 20 to 60 meters, was discovered by some 
Italian fishermen, who found sponges in their nets. This El Dorado, known as 
the bank of Port Said, after a most successful cruise thither by a vessel from 
Syme, attracted sponge fishermen from everywhere. The sponges were of the 
finest qualit}', and conditions were most favorable, for the diving apparatus 
was entirely excluded. 

In 1908, however, word began to be circulated that the Egyptian Govern- 
ment could not enforce its law outside the 3-mile limit. The sponge fishermen 
following the three good methods had meantime begun to assemble near Marsa 
Matruh, in Alexandria, where a fleet of 350 vessels with 3,000 men waited two 
weeks for decision from the Egyptian Government. Requests and petitions 
with thousands of signatures were of no avail. The advocates of the diving 
machine proved the more powerful, although they possess legal rights only in 
Greece. The Egyptian Government refused to assert control of the banks out- 



534 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

side of the 3-mile limit, and the waiting sponge fishermen found themselves at 
once in competition with vessels equipped with diving machines and armed with 
rifles, revolvers, and sabers. A crew of naked divers from Kalymnos were fired 
upon, and in response to complaint of the captain the Egyptian Government 
apprehended 1 10 men with 9 diving machines 26 miles off the coast and brought 
them to Port Said. Instead of prosecuting them, however, and inflicting the 
punishment that was deserved; notwithstanding that arms and ammunition 
were found on board their boat; notwithstanding also that they were Turkish 
subjects and therefore liable to the laws of Turkey and Egypt against diving 
machines, they were allowed to depart, after twenty-four hours, in full possession 
of diving ecjuipment, arms, and ammunition. 

The hardship upon the original occupants of the sponge grounds was great. 
After paying their fees of 8 to 4 Egyptian pounds (200 to 100 francs) for per- 
mission to fish, they were driven away, and in Syria, whither they resorted, 
they must pay an equal fee. The banks of Port Said are thus, moreover, left 
at the mercy of the machine divers. I have appealed to the International 
Life Saving Congress, held at Frankfort on the Main, and now urge the Inter- 
national Fishery Congress at Washington to give support and sympathy to the 
unfortunate sponge fishermen who have undergone such loss this season at 
Port Said. 

SPAIN, ALGERIA, AND MOROCCO. 

Sponge fishing is not remunerative in Spain, Algeria, and Morocco on 
account of lack of good sponges. Those to be found there are mostly funnel- 
shaped, called elephant's ears and simply ears by the Greek lishermen. Ten 
sailing vessels worked in Spain in 1903 with diving apparatus, coming from 
Kalymnos, Syme, and ^gina; in 1904 there were only two sailing vessels from 
Kalymnos and none since then. 

ITALY. 

Official statistics of the sponge fisheries were attempted in Rome earlier 
than in Athens, and the Italian Naval Office has for twenty years detailed a 
small war vessel each summer for the supervision of sponge fishing in Italian 
waters. The commanders of these vessels see to the maintenance of order, 
give medical assistance and remedies to the diseased sponge fishermen, supply 
them with drinking water, and send in reports to the Naval Office. Articles 
based on these reports are there prepared for pubHcation in the " Condizioni 
della Marina Mercantile Italiana," published each year by the Ministry of 
Merchant Marine, in a section devoted to the sponge fisheries. We find in 
these "Condizioni" abundant material on the sponge trade as carried on in 
Italy by natives and foreigners, and this material contains naturally some 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 535 

statistical data. The majority of the foreigners are machine divers on sailing 
vessels flying the Greek and Ottoman flags, and the " Condizioni " report regularly 
cases of death, disease, and desertion among them. Since, however, the Greek 
divers conceal their accidents and misdeeds from the Italian authorities, the 
statistics are not very complete. In the summer of 1902 the Naval Office 
promulgated a partial prohibition of the diving machines, regulating the depth 
in order to prevent disease and death; but the enforcing of such partial pro- 
hibition is very difficult, and thus this measure is quite insufficient in practice, 
as shown by the report of the "Condizioni" for the year 1907 for the cruise of 
1905, which mentions four new cases of illness of Greek sponge divers. 

According to the "Condizioni" for 1906, there were in the Italian waters in 
the year 1904, 309 Itahan fishermen on 63 sailing vessels of 1,302 tons. The 
total number of Italian sponge fishers for that year may, however, be computed 
at 1,270 men on 200 saihng vessels. The official statistics do not mention the 
137 sailing vessels which departed for Tunis, nor the quantity and value of the 
sponges gathered by them. According to the same source, there were in the 
Italian waters 406 Greek fishermen on 37 saiUng vessels, of which no on 22 
sailing vessels from Kranidion were equipped with dragnet and 296 on 15 
sailing vessels from ^gina carried diving apparatus. The fishing grounds were 
the extensive banks of Lampedusa and Pantellaria, where 36,864 kilograms of 
sponges, valued at 615,781 francs, were gathered as follows: For the 309 Italians, 
247,184 francs; for the Greeks, 368,597 francs, or for each Italian 800 and for 
each Greek about 908 francs. If we consider, however, that the expenses of 
the fishery are far greater for the diving apparatus than for the other modes of 
fishing, we see that the profit of the Italians and of the minority of the Greeks 
without these machines was in no way smaller than that of the majority of the 
Greeks using the diving apparatus, with the great difference that all the Italians 
and the minority of the Greeks fished with harmless means, while the majority 
of the Greeks used apparatus injurious to their health and to the prosperity of 
the ItaUan sponge grounds. The Italian Government hoped to be able to 
protect these divers by its partial prohibition of 1902, but the desired results 
were not attained. 

The Italian sponge fishers live at Terra del Greco, Porto Empedocle, Trapani, 
Naples, Palermo, and Catania, using mostly the dragnet and more rarely the 
hook, and fishing on the banks of Lampedusa, Linosa, Pantellaria, Ustica, the 
jEolian and ^gadian islands, along the coasts of Apulia and Calabria, Sicily, 
and Sardinia, and especially the coast of Tunis. In 1887 Captain Leonardo 
Angugliaro, from Trapani, discovered the extensive sponge banks of Lampedusa, 
and in the following year Greek fishermen with diving apparatus, under the 
Greek and Turkish flags, appeared there, to continue in Italy what they had 



536 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

SO thoroughly begun in their native country, i. e., the gradual but sure destruc- 
tion of the sponge fisher}-. It was thus that the question of diving machines 
was introduced in Italy. 

We must render the Italian Government the justice to acknowledge that 
it took and takes pains to obtain information. This is proved by the fact that 
as early as May 22, 1890, the Italian Naval Office sent a circular to the consuls 
at Tunis, Tripoli, Korphu, Canea, Piraeus, Thessalonica, Smyrna, and Larnaka, 
containing questions as to the sponge fishing, but the result of this action was 
not published. In June of the same year the Italian Government detailed to 
the Mark Antonio Colonna, commanded by Eugenio de Gaetani, Prof. Enrico 
Giglioli, of France, a scientist, now director of the Zoological Museum in that 
city. We owe to the joint work of these men several good maps of the sponge 
banks of Lampedusa, an imsuccessful attempt to raise sponges artificially, and 
a few partly correct and partly incorrect observations on the value of the diving 
apparatus for sponge fishing, which may be found in the report of the "Condi- 
zioni." Giglioli, a scientist of great ability, unfortunately favored the diving 
apparatus in this practical question, having not the least perception of the 
miseries it brought about. The evils of the method were thus not appreciated 
by the Naval Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce 
and the use of the diving apparatus was recommended to the Italian sponge 
fishermen often and warmly in the "Condizioni" until 1901. 

These frequent official recommendations in the "Condizioni," based upon 
the reports of the commanders of war ships supervising the sponge fishing, and 
the success of the Greeks, who concealed carefully their dead and cripples from 
the Italians, showing only the advantages of the method, induced a few Italians 
in 1893 to make a few experiments with the diving apparatus. These attempts 
were without the desired success, however, because in order to obtain the most 
modest results the life and health of human beings must be sacrificed without 
pity and no one could or would understand this in Italy, neither the officials of 
the ports nor the divers who serve in the Italian navy. The experiment to 
obtain sponges by means of the diving apparatus was tried once and no m.ore, 
as may be ascertained by the report published in 1894 in the "Condizioni." 
The observation of the necessary precautions for the divers being followed in 
Italy, sufficient pecuniary results were precluded. The Naval Office continued 
to recommend the use of the machines until 1901, however, though fortunately 
without any success, as may be seen from the reports of 1895, 1897, 1899, and 
elsewhere. 

The following incident, mentioned in the report of the "Condizioni " of 1898 

for the cruise of 1897, is very characteristic: v 

The naval authorities of Lampedusa learned that several Greek divers who met with 
accidents during their work were secretly buried on a neighboring island. The dispatch 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 537 

boat Rapido brought the proper authorities to the above-mentioned point, and three 
bodies of Greek divers were found. Microscopic examination, made by the ship's 
surgeon, showed that the divers were suffocated, and it was found they were afterwards 
buried by their comrades without notice to the authorities of Lampedusa. Thanks to the 
presence of the dispatch boat Rapido, these regrettable facts were found out and it 
was shown that the Greek captains of sponge vessels do not observe all the necessary 
precautionary measures demanded by humanity in this work. 

In the interest of justice and humanity the ItaHan Ministry of the Navy 
requested the Greek Government to take measures in order that such incidents 
should not occur again, and the Greek Ministry published on the 3/15 of Feb- 
ruary, 1898, a circular to the harbor masters and the consular authorities, 
enjoining them to see that the captains of the sponge-fishing craft observed 
rigorously all requirements, including the circular issued by the Ministry of the 
Navy on April 21/24, 1896, on precautions for divers. But all these measures 
remained without result, because the Greek Government does not fix the respon- 
sibility for cases of death and sickness, as we have already mentioned. The 
Ottoman Government likewise holds no one responsible for the abuse of the 
diving apparatus in spite of the prohibition of August, 1902. 

Fortunately a change has taken place since 1901 in the attitude of the 
Italian Ministry of the Navy in regard to the diving apparatus. In addition to 
the partial prohibition of 1902 in regard to the depth, we find in the " Condizioni " 
during the later years reports almost similar to that of 1906 for the cruise of 1904, 
which I transcribe here: 

The use of diving apparatus, which was fortunately not adopted by our sponge 
fishermen, is, although preferred for the selection of the product, always harmful and 
often deadly to those using it. 

This sentence and especially the word "fortunately," as well as the partial 
prohibition of 1902, is a declaration of the Ministry of the Navy of conviction 
that the diving apparatus is harmful, a conviction which ought to be substantiated 
by an entire prohibition. The limited questionable merit for selection of the 
product is of very small practical value and is easily changed into an evil if we 
think that after the selection of the large sponges soon the smaller and smallest 
are taken and the young growth is being crushed by the heavy and broad soles 
of the divers. The use of diving apparatus in sponge fishing is thus wholly con- 
demned and ought to be prohibited by every wise government. 

The other official body in Rome concerned with the fisheries, the Commis- 
sione Consultiva per la Pesca, which has been for more than twenty years a part 
of the Ministry of Agricultm-e, has as yet taken no action further than to recog- 
nize the question as deserving of study, action being deferred pending fuller infor- 
mation. Such delay is most dangerous to the interests at stake, since much evil 
may be done during the time consumed in further study of the subject. 



538 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

AUSTRI A-H UNGAR Y . 

The sponge fisheries in Austria-Hungary are located in the village of Crap- 
pano, district of Sebenico, in Dalmatia. There were, in 1904, 140 sponge 
fishermen on 70 barks. Each bark carries a rower and a fisherman, with a five- 
pronged hook which has a handle 18 meters long. The men smooth the sur- 
face of the sea by pouring oil over it, instead of using the tin cylinder with the 
glass bottom. The annual harvest of sponges per man varies from 225 to 500 
crowns in value; a few earned 800 crowns in 1897. The two former figures are 
below and the latter is above the sum mentioned by the "Condizioni" for the 
Italian sponge fishers in 1904, i. e., 800 francs. 

The Oesterreichische Gesellschaft fiir Seefischerei und Fischzucht, in Trieste, 
from whose reports I have taken the data for sponge fishing in Austria-Himgary, 
have recommended the diving machine to the sponge fishermen of Crappano since 
1892, the Imperial and Royal authorities of Trieste prescribing that on the coast 
of Istria and in the vicinity of the islands of Quarnero the apparatus should not 
be used at a depth of less than 1 2 meters and in the Dalmatian waters at a depth 
of 20 meters; but the enforcement of this requirement is very difficult. Experi- 
ments with the diving apparatus failed, however, as in all cases in which an enlight- 
ened government provided for personal safety of the divers and the future of 
the sponge beds. Observation of the necessary precautions precluded all profit. 
These efforts were met likewise with an obstinate resistance on the part of the 
majority of the sponge fishermen of Crappano, who recognized a great danger in 
the diving apparatus. Their own experience as well as the resolutions of the 
International Fishery Congress at St. Petersburg in 1902, at which the Oester- 
reichische Gesellschaft was represented, caused the latter to desist from further 
encouragement of the diving apparatus. 

The same society resolved in 1 904 to make experiments with the dragnet at 
depths over 40 meters, having in mind the considerable results obtained by this 
mode of fishing in the waters of Lampedusa. Such an apparatus was made for 
the society by a Greek sponge fisherman in Trieste. I have not yet, however, 
obtained a report of the results it yielded. The Austro-Hungarian waters are 
divided into zones for sponge fishing, in order to allow time for the sponges to 
grow to their full size and propagate, and it is forbidden to take sponges of less 
than 6 centimeters in diameter. 

UNITED STATES. 

There are numerous sponge banks in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, 
especially south and west of Florida, Cuba, Haiti, the Bahama Islands, which are 
situated outside the Gulf, and in other places. Sponge fishing in the state of 
Florida has its centers at Key West, Tarpon Springs, and Apalachicola. In 1900 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 539 

this industry was followed in the first locality by 1,827 persons, in the second by 
354 persons, and in the third by 64, making a total of 2,245. Among these, i ,239 
men were working on small vessels, 874 on barks, and 132 on shore. There were 
1,356 colored and 75 white men among the sponge fishermen, and among the 
workmen on shore there were 119 white and 13 colored men. According to 
nationalities, 1,268 were British subjects, mostly from the Bahama Islands, of 
which 1,013 were colored; 839 were citizens of the United States, of which 343 
were colored, 5 Portuguese, and i Norwegian. Among the men working on shore 
1 14 were citizens of the United States, all white, and i Greek. Up to 1905 the 
sponges were gathered in Florida exclusively by means of the hook. It is to be 
regretted that the dragnet is prohibited for the greater depths where the hook can 
not reach. 

In 1900 there were used in sponge fishing 156 small vessels of 1,750 tons 
in all, valued at $182,151, and 228 barks valued at $176,465. The trade in 
native sponges was concentrated at Key West and Tarpon Springs, and was 
carried on by representatives of firms in New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, 
with the exception of one independent firm in each of the two above-named 
Florida localities. These firms had in this year 17 buyers and 124 other em- 
ployees and workmen, the annual salary of whom amounted to a total of $43,947. 
In 1900 there were obtained in Florida 418,125 pounds of sponges, valued at 
$567,685, while in 1880 there were gathered 207,000 pounds of sponges, valued 
at $200,750. (These data are taken from official reports of the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries.) 

In February, 1905, the question of sponge diving arose in America. In 
the course of a few months 70 diving machines from Greece and Turkey, increas- 
ing to 100 in the following year, appeared in Florida, and, so far as I could 
ascertain at such a distance, operated without loss of life, since the work was 
done in shallow waters. It did so much the more harm to the future of the 
sponge beds, however, and the practical Americans did not need much time, 
fortunately, to see the danger threatening from these reckless foreigners. Thus 
the question arose in the United States, and those concerned were divided into 
two large groups with diverging interests for and against the diving apparatus, 
exactly as previously in other countries. All who could obtain a temporary 
profit declared themselves in favor of the diving apparatus, while all those who 
had regard for the futme were opposed. Both parties had influence and sought 
justice and protection from the Government, and the matter came before the 
Houses of Congress in Washington, there to be very promptly investigated 
and acted upon. 

On June 20, 1908, was passed the beneficent law by which the diving dress 
in sponge fishing was absolutely prohibited in depths of 50 feet and less, and 



540 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

at depths greater than 50 feet it could be used only from October i to May i. 
Moreover, the taking of the sponges of a diameter less than 4 inches was pro- 
hibited, under penalty of a fine of $100 to $500 or confiscation of the vessel and 
the diving dress. The important action of the Government of the United States 
was undoubtedly influenced by the resolutions of the International Fishery 
Congresses held in St. Petersburg in 1902 and in Vienna in 1905, as well as by 
the beneficent legislation of so many countries of the Mediterranean Sea, for 
these were frequently mentioned in the debates upon the subject, as were also 
the reports of American consuls in countries of this vast sea basin, who have 
given and still give this important question the consideration it merits, as may 
be seen from the report of Consul G. B. Ravndal in Beirut. The practical 
spirit of quick resolution in the Americans deserves high commendation and 
imitation, and it is to be hoped that this recent excellent example of forethought 
will influence the slower governments to early action in this important matter. 

RESUME. 

Most of the sponge-bearing countries — Samos, Crete, Egypt, Tunis, and 
Turkey — exact only a moderate payment of dues from each vessel. Cyprus did 
the same until 1 904 ; since that date the government of this island has exacted 
a very high percentage of the harvest of sponges, which is unjust and, moreover, 
unpractical, as it demands the continuous supervision of each sponge-fishing 
vessel. The United States, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Greece exact no fees. 
I lack the necessary information in this regard as to Cuba and the Bahama 
Islands. 

In fact, as I have stated, there is a lack of complete and general statistics 
on sponge fishing, especially as to injuries to health and hfe of the sponge fisher- 
men and the condition of sponge beds arising from the use of the diving appa- 
ratus. I obtained the following approximate figures, which vary, however, 
from year to year, by long years of observations and investigations. The 
number of diving machines in use by part of the sponge fishermen of Hydra 
and exclusively by those of Spetzae and Mg'ma in Greece; by part of the sponge 
fishermen of Kalymnos, Syme, Chalke, and Kastelloriso, and exclusively by 
those of Aivali, Moschonisia, and Marmora in Turkey, has varied according to 
the year from a few in 1866 to 225 with 1,200 divers and 1,500 sailors in 1898. 
The adherents of the three good methods may be computed at 10,000 in round 
numbers, fishermen and sailors, from Syria to Florida. Yet even this figure 
varies, though somewhat less, according to the years. With their families and 
the families of the classes closely united with them as priests, teachers, merchants, 
and artisans, the sponge fishermen form a population of more than 100,000 
heads. The yearly mortahty of sponge fishermen in the diving apparatus is 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 54I 

about 20 per cent and the seriously and slightly diseased reach annually 25 
per cent. The health of the sponge fishermen working with the hook and the 
dragnet is not exposed to the slightest injury. Only the naked divers run at 
times the danger of being attacked by a shark, but accidents of this kind are so 
rare that the fishermen do not consider them at all. The number of victims 
of the diving apparatus during the entire time of the abuse, i. e., during forty- 
two years, may be computed at 5,300 dead and 2,300 seriously disabled, while 
cases of slight diseases, transformed into serious ones with time and ending in 
death or chronic ailment, attack all divers after a longer or shorter period of 
work in the machines. 

For the future of the fishery as well as the welfare of the fisherman the 
diving machine is most harmful. It has been contended that the diver fishes 
without disturbing the bottom. This is not true. The heavy apparatus breaks 
and crunches the embryo sponges that lie in the path of the diver, and he searches 
over the entire sponge-bearing area. He takes, moreover, not only the largest 
and best sponges but also the small ones, arguing that what he does not take 
to-day will be taken by some one else to-morrow, and he fears also the cruel 
captain. The naked divers, on the other hand, are unable to take so many 
sponges or to harvest so closely, since their stay under water must be brief. 
Their season is from April to September. The hookers and the dragnet fisher- 
men work throughout the year, but it is to be noted that the dragnet can not be 
used either in total calm or in gale or storm, while calm or light breezes are 
necessary for the naked diver or the hooker. Thus it will be seen that each 
of these methods is subject to frequent and sometimes long-continued inter- 
ruption. Their harmlessness as compared with the scaphander is obvious. 

Experiments in artificial raising of sponges, although imdertaken frequently, 
have never been successful and probably never will be on account of the very 
nature of things. When the sponges are torn from their roots a milky fluid 
flows from their elastic tissues, and it is this fluid that contains the germs of 
new sponges, which are carried along by the currents as the seeds of some plants 
are carried by the wind, until they attach themselves and grow. A sponge 
needs four to five years to reach maturity, after which it begins to die, having 
discharged its fluid with the germs. The sea currents, which the sponge needs 
for its growth, are an obstacle to artificial raising of sponges, for while they 
allow the microscopic embryo to fasten itself to a suitable spot, they do not 
permit cuttings selected for culture purposes to do so, and the equipment nec- 
essary to overcome this is easily destroyed by storms. Moreover, if it were 
possible for science to succeed in effecting this miracle, on a small scale and at 
a large expense, the result would be of no commercial value, as all the most 
effective conservation of the sponge beds would be accomplished by prohibition 



542 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OK FISHERIES. 

of the diving apparatus. This would cost neither money nor labor, and under 
it the sponges would propagate abundantly, while hundreds of lives would be 
saved or benefited thereby. 

APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 

My work in the cause of the sponge divers at first consisted of efforts to 
arouse public interest in their behalf, by written communications and petitions, 
by publications in the press, and by lectures on the subject. I at length, however, 
resorted to direct appeal to the authorities of the different countries concerned, 
presenting my cause in person. I have likewise organized societies or enlisted 
the efforts of existing organizations wherever possible, and have brought the 
matter before various official and unofficial bodies. As recounted in the pre- 
ceding pages, all of the sponge-bearing countries of the Mediterranean, and also 
the United States of America, have passed prohibitory or restrictive laws. For 
the most part, however, the laws have been ineffective, by reason of intrigues 
on the part of advocates of the scaphander and indifference on the part of the 
governments. The various international congresses before whom the question 
has been brought, while in one or two instances slow to act, have for the most 
part given prompt and full indorsement of my plea. I am now addressing the 
International Life-vSaving Congress at Frankfort on the Main, and at the same 
time making a fervent appeal to the International Fishery Congress at Wash- 
ington. The measures for which I solicit the support of these congresses are 
the following: 

(i) Prohibition of the diving apparatus and protection of the three good 
modes of fishing brought down from antiquity. 

(2) Inauguration of an international supervision of the execution of inter- 
national measures against the illegal sponge fishing with diving apparatus in 
neutral waters where the national supervision is not sufficient. 

(3) Establishment of life and accident insurance as well as of savings 
banks for the sponge fishermen. 

(4) Care of the surviving victims of the diving apparatus. 

(5) Levying of dues for the permission to take sponges, and the utilization 
of part of this revenue in behalf of the sponge fishermen. 

(6) Rigid supervision of the execution of these measures on land and on 
water. 

Since parts of this programine have already become law in various inter- 
ested countries and have operated with the best of success, there is reason to 
hope that they will soon meet with recognition and execution in countries 
where little has as yet been done for the suffering sponge fishermen. 

The question of maritime jurisdiction is a further problem of importance 
in the sponge fisheries. Greece, Turkey, Tunis, the United States, and lately 



ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 543 

Egypt, have accepted the 3-mile hmit in the dispute as to the use of the 
scaphander — an old formula not applicable in scientific administration of the 
sponge fisheries, since the sponge grounds often lie beyond that distance from 
the coast. It is to be hoped that all enlightened governments will give due 
recognition to this fact and in regard to the sponge fishermen will assume juris- 
diction over a zone of 60 miles to seaward, abolishing the abuse of the scaphander 
within that territory. I earnestly solicit the International Fishery Congress to 
recommend such action. 



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